| February 16, 1936 A coalition known as the Popular Front (Frente Popular), comprised of socialists, communists, republicans, and labor groups, narrowly won a majority in the Cortes, Spain’s parliament, defeating the National Front. |
| February 16, 1959 Fidel Castro was sworn in as Cuba’s youngest prime minister after leading a years-long guerrilla campaign that forced right-wing dictator Fulgencio Batista into exile.  Fidel Castro Castro, who had become commander-in-chief of Cuba’s armed forces after Batista was ousted on January 1, replaced the more moderate Jose Miro Cardona as head of the country’s new provisional government.  Fulgencio Batista More background on Fidel As reported at the time, including a filmed interview with Castro in English |
| February 16, 1982 Citizens’ Action for Safe Energy (CASE) succeeded in stopping construction of Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant near Inola, Oklahoma. Public Service of Oklahoma announced the cancellation, the first of its kind solely due to citizen protest.  CASE’s founder, Carrie Barefoot Dickerson, known as Aunt Carrie, and her husband, Robert, spent nearly a decade and all their financial assets organizing folks around Tulsa and the state. The Dickersons’ principal concern was the potential damage to health near the plant, and elsewhere through uranium mining and processing. Aunt Carrie, her allies and their success watch video (2011) |
| February 16, 1996 Seven activists were arrested for blocking the road to the ceremony commissioning the nuclear submarine U.S.S. Greeneville at the Norfolk (Virginia) Naval Base.  |
| February 16, 1996 The Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), representing Mexico’s southern indigenous peoples, and the Mexican federal government signed the San Andrés Accords. Begun in 1994 in Chiapas state, the EZLN had pushed the government for: • Basic respect for the diversity of the indigenous population of Chiapas; • The conservation of the the natural resources within the territories used and occupied by indigenous peoples;  Subcommandate Marcos, leader of the Zapatistas, and two of his officers • A greater participation of indigenous communities in the decisions and control of public expenditures; • The participation of indigenous communities in determining their own development plans, as well as having control over their own administrative and judicial affairs; • The autonomy of indigenous communities and their right of free determination in the framework of the State. |
| February 16, 2005 The Kyoto Protocol went into effect after countries responsible for 55% of the world’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions had ratified the treaty, following Russia’s agreement to its terms. The agreement’s purpose was to reduce such gases to 12% below their levels in 1990 by 2012 and, thus, slow global warming.  180 countries had agreed (except for the United States and Australia, two of the world’s top emitters of GHG per capita) to rules for implementing the Kyoto Protocol on July 29, 2001, in Bonn, Germany. President George W. Bush withdrew the U.S. from the process shortly after he took office that same year. His reasoning was that, since India and China had not signed on, they would gain a competitive advantage. The U.S. is now responsible for 15.6% of the earth’s GHG (with 5% of its population). History, background on the Kyoto Protocol |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryfebruary.htm#february16
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